Search This Blog For More Than 10,000+ Ebooks

August 11, 2008

India's Abhinav Bindra won a gold in men's 10-metre Air Rifle event in Beijing. Bindra shot 104.5 to take his total to 700.5 in the final. This is India's first ever Olympic gold in any individual event and ninth in total. Bindra, the 25-year-old businessman from the northern city of Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for his country.Despite its huge population, India's Olympic medal total coming into the Beijing Games was a mere 15. Only once in the 112-year history of the Olympics had India claimed more than one medal in a single Games.

You can get more information about Abhinav Bindra on WikipediaUntil Bindra's triumph, India's only gold medals had come in the sport of field hockey and the last of those was won in 1980.

In one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, Bindra overcame a two-point deficit against Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to annexe the title.Going into the last shot, Bindra and Hakkinen were tied for first place, but Bindra secured the gold medal with his best shot of the final, an outstanding 10.8.Conversely, Hakkinen's last shot was his worst, a lowly 9.7. This allowed Zhu to overcome Hakkinen and win the silver medal. Zhu shot 10.5 on his last shot.

Zhu will be disappointed that did not become the first shooter to win two gold medals in the Men's 10m Air Pistol. However, he was unable to reproduce his best – Zhu holds the Olympic record for the final score in the event, the 702.7 that he shot at Athens 2004.

In ten rounds, Bindra shot 10.7, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5, 10.6, 10.0, 10.2, 10.8to clinch the first berth. China's Qinan Zhu won silver while Finland's Henri Hakkinen won bronze. Bindra had shot a total of 596 out of 600, shooting a perfect 100 in 3 of the 6 rounds of the qualifiers. Bindra finished 4th to qualify 2 points behind Henri Hakkinen of Finland.Gagan Narang, meanwhile, was very unlucky missing out by just 1 point on a countback after he was tied with 4 others after 6 rounds with an average score of 9.917 in the qualifiers. In a countback, since all five shooters, who were tied, had shot a perfect 100 in the last round, the 5th round scores were taken into account, where Narang had managed a 98, whereas the others had shot either a 99 or a 100.

A medal in this event was not completely unexpected. Abhinav Bindra had broken the Olympic record last Olympic but failed to win a medal. Bindra was 4th in the qualifiers.

He won the the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for 2001-2002. An MBA degree holder, Abhinav is the CEO of Abhinav Futuristics.India ’s best ever performance at the individual level before this was double trap shooter performance by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who won India the silver medal four years back at Athens. The last gold medal India won was in 1980 in hockey at Moscow.

Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi was ecstatic : “He is the best shooter in the world and I think his is a morale boosting feat for everyone in thecontinent.” This surely places India high in the medal tally table, this being the 12th gold awarded in this year’s Olympic. Surely, all Indians are proud today of Bindra’s achievement and hope this is just the new beginning. Let us congratulate Bindra and all the hardworking Indian athletes who are trying their best to uphold the Indian flag at the Olympics.

Bindra, who entered the event ranked 17th in the world, finished with a score of 700.5 points, barely ahead of Zhu (699.7), who was denied his second straight Olympic gold medal in the event. He won in Athens four years ago with 702.7 points and was first in the World Cup in Beijing earlier this year.China has won four medals, including two gold, in the 10-meter air rifle at past three Olympics.

"This time was much harder than Athens," said Zhu. "My craving for the gold was much more than last time. For quite a long time, I felt melancholy and had complexfeelings."Hakkinen finished with 101.4 points.

The top American in the field was Jason Parker, who was 23rd with 591 points. Stephen Scherer (590) was 27th.